social capital – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:27:46 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 Crisis and transition of NGOs in Europe: The case of Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/crisis-and-transition-of-ngos-in-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:36 +0000 http://arc.local/items/crisis-and-transition-of-ngos-in-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Continued]]> The ongoing financial crisis has globally impacted nearly every national economy in the world. Although its initial effects were concentrated purely in the financial sector, increased economic turbulence has gradually diffused into most sectors of society—including civil society and NGOs. One basic consequence has been the transformation of development assistance due to a decrease in available funding from the usual “suspects”, known as “old donors,” and a subsequent increase from so called “new donors” such as China and Brazil. Moreover, many of these “new donors” are negatively predisposed to working with NGOs and thus available funding to NGOs in the international level seems to be decreasing. A focus on the national level also reveals a similar case: countries that were greatly impacted by the aftermath of the crisis, such as Greece, have sharply decreased available public funding to NGOs.

This paper explores the effects of these developments. Its initial findings suggest that the “western model” of NGOs expansion is less viable than before. NGOs are being accused of losing their fundamental values and working mostly as ‘walking sticks’—covering states’ inefficiencies in specific sectors—thus their function as an unofficial public sector is being challenged. In practice, NGOs are transforming into dedicated contractors of national and international public agencies with limited to no real interconnection with society. This transformation is being rendered incompatible with the new environment, as available contracts are becoming less lucrative. As a result, many NGOs are rediscovering their idealistic past while new, less formal civil society actors are arising to cover the multiple needs created by the crisis. Focusing mainly on the Greek case study, this paper presents a seldom-studied effect of the financial crisis—the transformation of the NGO sector, culminating in informal networks overlapping with “old school” NGOs which find it difficult to adjust to the new economic situation. Evidence suggests that a dual trend currently exists where a small segment of existing “professionalized” NGOs are able to gain public funding through the usual public procurement procedures. Thus, they are able to survive and further expand in conjunction with the rise of small, grassroots organizations whose main strengths derive from their devotion to the practice of philanthropy, altruism, and voluntarism, in addition to their widespread acceptance from the general public.

]]> Cognitive social capital and mental illness during economic crisis: A nationwide population-based study in Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/cognitive-social-capital-and-mental-illness-during-economic-crisis-a-nationwide-population-based-study-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:25 +0000 http://arc.local/items/cognitive-social-capital-and-mental-illness-during-economic-crisis-a-nationwide-population-based-study-in-greece/ Continued]]> The ongoing financial crisis in Greece has yielded adverse effects on the mental health of the population. In this context, the particular study investigates the link between two indices of cognitive social capital; namely interpersonal and institutional trust, and the presence of major depression and generalized anxiety disorder. A random and representative sample of 2256 respondents took part in a cross-sectional nationwide telephone survey the time period February-April 2011 (Response Rate = 80.5%), after being recruited from the national phone number databank. Major depression and generalized anxiety disorder were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview, while for interpersonal and institutional trust the pertinent questions of the European Social Survey were utilized. Socio-demographic variables were also encompassed in the research instrument, while participants’ degree of financial strain was assessed through the Index of Personal Economic Distress. Both interpersonal and institutional trust were found to constitute protective factors against the presence of major depression, but not against generalized anxiety disorder for people experiencing low economic hardship. Nonetheless, in people experiencing high financial strain, interpersonal and institutional trust were not found to bear any association with the presence of the two disorders. Consistent with these, the present study shows that the effect of social capital on mental health is not uniform, as evident by the different pattern of results for the two disorders. Furthermore, cognitive social capital no longer exerts its protective influence on mental health if individuals experience high economic distress. As a corollary of this, interventions aiming at mitigating the mental health effects of economic downturns cannot rely solely on the enhancement of social capital, but also on alleviating economic burden.

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